Derek Miller's public goodbye would properly be called an "auto-obituary," but the title affixed to his final blog entry is plainer and more effective. "The last post" is both a touching farewell and evidence that blogs can still surprise and move people.

In it, the Canadian technical writer alludes to his battle with cancer and explains that, though he does not believe in the afterlife, he was in the end "unafraid of death." He ambles through what public life was like in the year 2000, before he knew he had cancer. And he says goodbye to his wife and two young daughters. This goodbye feels like a blog post, in the best sense; there is something comforting about all those exclamation points; the casual tone ("here it is — I'm dead"); even the XKCD link and the comments. It is a wonderfully web native obituary.

Miller passed away Tuesday in Burnaby, British Columbia. He was 41, and obviously, among many other things, a great blogger.